Kylie Minogue facts

Kylie has had top-ten pop hits in four different decades. Which is pretty mad, whichever way you think about it.

Only Queen Elizabeth II has had more waxworks created at Madame Tussauds; Kylie is on number four.

The INXS song Suicide Blonde was written about her. Michael Hutchence (RIP) once claimed that his favourite hobby was “corrupting Kylie”.

Why we love Kylie Minogue

Five-foot-nothing of pure Antipodean perkiness, Kylie Minogue has been the girl of our dreams (and then the woman of our dreams) for as long as any of us can remember. She’s had her ups and her downs, but she’s never thrown the towel in on being pop’s sexiest pixie, and we’ve never thrown in the towel on her.

Of course, she’s not solely about electropop bangers and glittery hotpants – Kylie is also, lest we forget, an actual actress. From humble beginnings as dungaree-clad mechanic Charlene in Neighbours, she went on to appear in Street Fighter, Doctor Who and, more recently, the critically acclaimed and completely bat-shit-crazy fantasy film Holy Motors.

Forty-something and fitter than ever, we’re pretty sure that Kylie could survive a global nuclear apocalypse. Sure, she’d only have cockroaches, amoeba and radiation-frazzled mutants to perform to – but you can bet she’d go on with the show like a total pro.